


An Audience

by bluntblade



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Armitage Hux Hates Kylo Ren, Feeling's mutual, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:55:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22242940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluntblade/pseuds/bluntblade
Summary: General Hux is summoned to attend upon Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. He's delighted to do so, of course.This fix has now been reworked for my Episode IX rewrite.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	An Audience

Gorothad, capital world of the First Order’s domain, was what those of weaker spirit called oppressive. Towers of black stone and metal thrust up from the surface, creating shadowed canyons where the toiling masses dwelt. Beyond them and the thin clouds they pierced, one could see the looming shapes of Star Destroyers. An ordered world, locked in place by the jackboot.

Other measures were used to instill discipline and loyalty. Screens a hundred metres across displayed the triumphant legions of the First Order on the march across world after subjugated world. From blaring speakers, stentorian voices extolled the achievements of the brilliant General Hux, recently returned from his latest sector-scale conquest. Those same voices proclaimed the violence of his battles as just retribution for the cowardly and treacherous assassination of Supreme Leader Snoke.

The brilliant General Hux had his own thoughts on that last matter, as his command shuttle swept in towards the Palace of Discipline. Certain suspicions too; about just who had held the lightsaber and felled the Supreme Leader’s elite guards. All eight of them, whether or not they were incapicated by the Resistance cruiser’s ramming attack. Hux’s lip curled briefly.

However, with the domed mass of the Palace looming, the smirk couldn’t last long. Any trace of it died as Hux beheld the massed ranks of Stormtroopers on the surrounding plaza. He knew who those soldiers ultimately answered to, and he was painfully aware that it wasn’t him.

He stalked down the landing ramp, appreciating as if for the first time how domineering a presence the Palace’s architects had crafted. The greatest towers fell away as one approached, leaving the great dome as the one focal point on the horizon. 

Once that sort of display had been reassuring for Hux. With Snoke on the throne, Hux had felt himself to be an extension of the Supreme Leader’s power, just as the officers and soldiers below him were. With the new Supreme Leader, things were rather different.

He swept down corridors with a full squad of Stormtroopers at his back, forcing anyone in his path to dive into side passages or do their best to disappear into the walls. That brought the smirk back for a little while, though it faltered as Hux made his way deeper into the structure and found the lights steadily dimmer as he went.

Finally he came to a gate where plasteel abruptly gave way to stone, guarded by an elite company of Stormtroopers. Stormtroopers who weren’t answerable to anyone but the Supreme Leader, even if they parted readily enough as the gate opened.

The chamber beyond was cavernous, sepulchral, its vaulted ceiling lost in the gloom. Every step Hux took echoed loudly, and he shrank into his collar against the chill.

There were stands at the edge of the throne room, the same black stone caught in pillars of pale light. Hux saw a wickedly curved dagger, a crooked statuette, a pale mask and other artefacts resting on the plinths. They reeked of occultism, and even if Hux overlooked that, none of them were pleasing to the eye.

Something still less pleasant was waiting, stood between him and the throne. Where once there would have been the Praetorians in their elegant crimson armour, now there were six figures in mismatched armour, swathed in black robes. The Knights of Ren, the Supreme Leader’s savage little coven, stood in a loose semicircle before the throne. 

Hux couldn't see any eyes behind their masks and helmets, but he could feel them - or some other sense with which they perceived him. There was an insouciance to the way they stood there. That stance, while it couldn’t be mistaken for being on guard, did have a certain predatory aspect to it. 

And there was something less easily defined; what Hux had come to recognise as the touch of the Dark Side. It boiled off the Knights like the stench of rancid blood, spilled months ago and never cleaned away. Added to that, ever since that confrontation on the  _ Supremacy  _ it induced a certain tightness in Hux’s throat. He wanted nothing more than to be past them.

He was so intent on this that he almost walked into the two blades that barred his path. The two Knights in the centre of their formation had drawn their weapons with such speed that they seemed to just  _ be there _ all of a sudden, forcing Hux into a dead stop.

Hux scowled at the Knights, before he looked past them to the figure on the throne, raising an eyebrow. A hand rose languorously from the black marble, and the Knights lowered their weapons. Hux tried not to hurry through or let any relief show on his face. 

Which was actually rather easy when he reflected on just who was occupying the throne. It made him feel vaguely nauseous to see Kylo Ren sat there, raised up to loom over Hux and scrutinise him as he approached. 

The towering, skeletal form of the old Supreme Leader had fit the seat rather better, and Ren looked altogether less comfortable there. He brooded, hunched over, one hand gripping his lightsaber hilt as the weapon rested on the stone. Hux supposed he could find some encouragement in that, but he knew his old rival’s instability all too well. Not to mention Ren’s willingness to vent it on others.

It was Ren who eventually broke the silence, as was his prerogative. “It appears to me that Poe Dameron, the man who flew into the heart of the Starkiller and gambled a fleet to destroy a dreadnought, has become a ghost. As indeed have the entire Resistance.”

“We have been allocating our resources to higher priorities, Supreme Leader.” Hux held Ren’s gaze, doing his best to ignore the Knights at his back. “The Resistance is all but broken, and if we hold every major system then their extinction becomes a matter of inevitability.”

“There are considerations beside strategy,” Ren growled. “The regicide is still out there. I would have my revered predecessor avenged sooner rather than later.”

Hux almost believed he was telling the truth.  _ But come now Ren, we’re all practiced liars in this palace. Unless you count the Stormtroopers. On which note… _

“Understood,” he said. “We shall redouble our efforts in the matter of the rabble. I do however have a question of my own.”

“Very well, General.”

“There have been deployment changes. Sweeping changes, mandated with your seal.”

“I don’t hear your question yet, General.”

Hux just about kept the scowl from his face. “On what basis, may I ask, are you ordering these alterations?”

Ren’s hand tightened on the sabre as he leaned forward. “Reliability. The divisions I have picked are bloodied to a man. I have no desire to be surrounded by raw recruits - I will accept only proven killers.”

_ And no doubt keeping the very best killers closest to you _ , Hux thought.

But Ren had another point to make. “There have been whispers from the training encampments, Armitage. Unreliability among the recruitment cadres, necessitating purges.”

“Supreme Leader, this would be the first I’ve heard of it.”

“Then I suggest you turn your attention to it and put your house in order. After all, if your underlings are keeping errors from you then they are undermining a project you are so very proud of. I remember you extolling its merits, back when we had a Stormtrooper defect.”

Hux kept his expression neutral through all this, and when he thanked the Supreme Leader for this information and requested leave to depart.

He kept the scream of rage bottled down until he was back in his apartments.

**Author's Note:**

> It still amazes me that the Knights weren't even used well as prop characters, and that Adam Driver wasn't allowed to brood on a throne even once.


End file.
